So my second night home from the World Race, I woke up and had this on my heart at about 4 am. My team from this year would find it no surprise that I would be awake so early. The following day I waited in the hospital emergency room with my mother and father after my dad had a mini stroke. We were waiting to see if my dad would make it to his father's funeral the next day. Those stressful moments reminded me of the frightful day 2 years ago when he had his massive stroke. We prayed big prayers over my father so that God would be given even more glory. And just at the right time, the doctor released my dad to say his final goodbyes to his dad. I shared this at my grandpa's service.
There's no place like home. I traveled the globe this year and truly felt that there's no place like home this month. But I can come home and still feel that deep longing for another home. Not this one.
They say home is where the heart is. Where is your heart then? Is it with your job? Is it in all the good things you do? Is it with your family, your children? Is it in the pleasures of life? Your fortune, your education another person? Or Is it in all of your hurts, losses, failures, worries? Wherever your heart is, the teacher in Ecclesiastes says all these things are meaningless: a chasing after the wind.
That thought is both sobering and freeing. Because if you find today that you think your heart is in the right place here on earth, and then told it's meaningless you might find yourself frustrated for all your efforts are in vain. And if your heart is broken and you hear that it's meaningless to place your heart in your worries, that can be very freeing. So what are you so worried about today? Because it's all going to the dust just like everything else. And the freeing moment comes when you recognize the One who puts meaning into the meaningless.
We all struggle with our heart and where to invest it because God put eternity in our hearts.
A couple of days ago I was in South Africa and heard that my grandpa had passed away. And then a few short moments later, that was a mistake, he was just sleeping. So that meant I had the opportunity to see him one last time through Skype. And the only thing I could do was praise Jesus.
Life is like a shadow. You only get it for as long as it's given and I was given a moment to praise Jesus alongside my grandfather's bed. Eternity was in his heart and now eternity is his forever.
The song at the bottom is one I heard at church in South Africa and sounded like angels singing so I sang it to my grandpa and at his funeral. Qhaway la ma Qhaway means King of Kings.
Eternity that has been put in your heart and my prayer is that you may fully open yourself to both the gift and the Giver.
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
